Hello AT,
Insufferable soffits. I have soffits in my 80's condo with eight foot ceilings.
Here are my questions: What color do you paint the bottom of the soffit -- match the wall or match the ceiling? I picked white to match the ceiling and reflect a little light. I get asked when I am going to finish painting. Next, those air conditioning ducts -- leave 'em alone or paint then to match the walls? Should you ever place decorative objects on the soffit? See picture of my kitchen with plates on soffit -- does this work?... [more below]
(Note: Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first.
Email questions and pics with QUESTIONS in subject line to:
editor(at)apartmenttherapy(dot)com)
Link To All Good Questions
Finally, I have a sliding glass door, the casing of which comes to within 1" of the jutting out of the soffit. On one side of the door, the casing comes to within 1" of the corner of the wall. How does one hang curtain rods in such space?
Thanks for any ideas. Margaret
Dear Margaret,
We agree. Soffits can be nerdzswaddlingly difficult to figure out.
Some of this is subjective and some is not. Here's what we think.
1. with such a small soffit in such close quarters paint it the same as the wall. It is clearly attracting attention to itself the way it is and it doesn't deserve the attention. It is just confusing people. If you really want to highlight an architectural feature, then you should paint the underside the same as the ceiling.
2. The vent covers should be painted the same as the wall for the same reason: you want them to visually disappear, not stand out.
3. The plates? Geesh, we would take them down as they seem to clutter the space rather than bring beauty to it. It is not "wrong" to hang them, however, as they are very nicely displayed. We consider this more a matter of style.
When it comes to style no one is ever right and no one is ever wrong.
Anyone else??
I think your kitchen looks fine the way it is -- it really depends what "look" you want.
I lean more towards a minimilist look and would keep the soffits white -- then for the vent grills I'd find some really beautiful white or galvinized steel ones and not have the plates up there.
The plates look great up there, though -- except the center one over the sink is too large, you should keep all the plates the same size with plenty of "white" around them.
Just a thought...
What is a soffit?
The built out area above the cabinets, so that they connect to the ceiling.
"The underside of a structural component, such as a beam, arch, staircase, or cornice."
Usually used when good workmanship in plumbing or electrical was unavailable. Usually a money issue.
Woo-hoo, I learned a new word today!
Soffit
I love the sound of it.
Soffit
I can't believe anyone would comment on that. And I thought I was a critical decorating harpy.
As a general rule. paint ordinarily entends to inside corners on wall/ceiling surfaces to maintain neat lines. On the soffet, just painting the underside would make it very difficult to have a neat edge where the soffet turns up toward the ceiling (an 'outside' corner). Paint it the same as the wall or same as the ceiling (the latter would likely appear to shorten the height of the walls which may not be desireable), but not 1/2 of one and 1/2 of the other.
The more you decorate the soffet, the more it will be noticed. It's entirely a matter of your own preference.
Such a nice, bright kitchen. I'm jealous. I am an apartment dweller with a typical NYC no-window kitchen.
Though your soffit may be causing you issues, be glad it's not like my parents' with ugly wallpaper on it--a green and white trellis design with green fruit on it (I feel like I need a support group...such as "children of bad interior decisions" or something)
I had a similar situation in my kitchen and was much happier once I had painted the soffit above the cabinets to match the walls. Now my next decision is whether to paint the vertical planes of the HVAC duct soffits the same color as the walls and paint the horizontal planes to match the ceiling. Luckily I have been able to see some neighbor's treatments where they did that, and it looked pretty good. But I'm nervous.
I say paint the soffit underside the same as your walls. I think your kitchen is very cute, and I like the plates on the soffit. I think it's a creative way to deal with an odd space.
What I don't like is when people DON'T have soffits but still have cabinets that are shy of the ceiling, and they put that fake ivy on top. UGH.
ah, so that's what those are called.
i have them ALL OVER my apartment. literally every interior wall has them. gotta love the postwar cheapo housing project interiors...
anyway, when i first moved in, my idea was to highlight them by painting the undersides interesting bright colors in the rooms i planned to leave white. who's to say they're bad workmanship and not fabulous minimalist bone structure. right? i haven't actually done anything to them yet. it could still happen though. thus far, in the rooms i have painted, i have just painted the whole thing the color of the walls. personally, i think your soffits look fine as shown above. i probably wouldn't chose to hang plates there, but that's just a matter of taste.
my childhood kitchen had soffits (wallpapered along with the rest of the kitchen walls), and my parents hung these interesting pieces of art on them. they were vintage tin can labels mounted on wooden plaques. it gave the whole kitchen this really funky casual vibe.
Definitely paint the soffit the color of the walls, that way they are not emphasized.
I have soffits in my living room, bedroom and kitchen -- all are painted the wall color.
I would paint not just the soffit (underside bit) but the whole 'jutting out to the ceiling' in the wall colour, which seems to be pale blue. It would make the ceiling look higher if all the surfaces read as 'wall'; also the vents.
If the plates are of any value, the wires used to hold them to the wall will eventually destroy the edges. The UK Antiques Roadshow always comments on the damage they cause. This page tells you about it www.bbc.co.uk/antiques/antiques_care/pottery.shtml.
Generally speaking, if you want something to disappear, paint it in. I think your kitchen is quite nice as it is. If it were mine, I'd paint the ceiling, wall, soffit and vent covers all the same light color, and add a backsplash detail (tumbled stone, or glass tiles?)and a window covering to draw the eye down and away from the annoying soffit.
And my personal preference is to not hang stuff on soffits. It causes the eye to skip around the room.
That wasn't very clear, I think. I meant install a backsplash up to the bottom of the cabinets, and carry that line around as far as you counter goes.
Thanks everybody. I have decided to paint the underside of the soffit to match the walls, paint the airconditioning vents to match the walls as well, and take the plates down. I am intrigued by the thought to emphasize the soffit underside by painting it a bright color in an otherwise white room. That could look really neat. If you do it, I'd love to see a picture.
Margaret
Lovely kitchen. Very welcoming. Ahhh.
I agree with your decision to paint the vents.
We actually painted the underside the same color as the cabinets and the side the same color as the walls. It must look ok, because no one has ever commented on it and it doesn't drive me crazy. It might make the soffits seem to work together better with the cabinetry.
Of course this wouldn't work with wood stained cabinets. A matching wood veeneer on the soffit underside might look interesting.. or awful.
I don't know why this question even came up - just because something is horizontal doesn't make it a ceiling so why paint it the same colour as the ceiling - bizarre
The ceiling is the flat bit above your head - everything below that gets painted wall colour - vertical, horizontal, diagonal (like underneath stairs) - its all wall so paint it wall colour
Gee, you Americans are weird! ;)
Violetsrose, I had always wondered what the difference was between walls and ceilings. Thanks for explaining!
Margaret
This sounds like the place to help me! I am remodeling a kitchen from the 60's, it has 8 foot ceilings and soffits. It also has a peninsula with soffit and hanging cabinets. I cannot decide if I should even leave the soffits at all, except for above the peninsula because I need a place for a range hood there. The kitchen opens to the family room and I want it to remain a separte room but I also want an up-dated look that seems to be limited by soffits!
Any ideas. Thanks
I love the decor on the soffits, and btw , your kitchen looks great. I think keeping the soffits same color as walls.